More than one million bank employees across the country will go on a strike on April 16 along with members of other financial sector unions to protest against the Centre's ''suicidal'' and privatisation policy, proposed amendments to labour laws, among other things. Following the call given by the central trade unions to observe a ''total shutdown'' on April 16, the bank employees will also strike work to protest against the government policies, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary Tarakeswar Chakravarty said at a press conference in Vijaywada on Saturday. He took strong exception to union finance minister Yashwant Sinha's budget proposal to create an asset reconstruction company, and said, ''This is nothing but an attempt to whitewash the balance sheets of banks which had non-performing assets worth Rs 75,000 crore. ''How the banks, which could not recover these bad loans for years together, will recover them by starting another company?,'' he asked. With the approval of the Reserve Bank of India, the AIBEA would publish a list of willful defaulters, who owed along with interest a whopping Rs 1,20,000 crore to banks, by July next, he said.
He demanded that the Centre immediately declare willful default of bank loans a criminal offence and attach the assets of defaulters and their immediate kith and kin. A statutory independent audit system should be introduced in banks and no loan should be granted to a group if any of its company defaulted, he said. Bureau Report